Composite shaft with flexible features

Abstract: A shaft assembly comprising an elongated member having at least a portion (30) which is hollow, tubular, shell like having an inside surface (42) defining a shaft core and an outside surface (32) defining a shaft functional surface, the shaft core being filled with a hardened, moldable material, and the shaft functional surface having at least one functional feature (38,39) thereon, which is of hardened, moldable material integrally molded with the hardened, moldable material in the shaft core. The shaft assembly has at least one molding aperture gate (31) extending through the shaft from the inside surface to the outside surface which is filled with hardened, moldable material connecting the hardened material in the shaft core and functional feature. The tubular member has a helical pattern (28) cut through from the inside surface to the outside surface in that portion adjacent the at least one aperture gate and underneath the at least one functional feature to enable that portion to be flexible and deformable when placed under pressure against a surface.

Description: The present invention relates to a shaft assembly, and although it is applicable to apparatus comprising various mechanical components, it has particular application to electrostatographic reproducing apparatus. Briefly, and as illustrated in Figures I and 2, in electrostatographic printing apparatus commonly in use today a photoconductive insulating surface 10 which is typically the surface of a rotatable drum is charged to a uniform potential by a charge corotron 12 and thereafter exposed to a light image of an original document 15 to be reproduced on an exposure platen 16 by means of exposure lamp 17, the exposure discharging the photoconductive insulating surface in exposed or background areas creating an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive insulating surface of the document. A developer unit 20 is contained within the apparatus and has developer material to develop the electrostatic latent image. Typically, the developer material has charged carrier particles and charged toner particles which triboelectrically adhere to the carrier particles and, during development, the toner particles are attracted from the carrier particles to the charged areas of the photoconductive insulating surface. The developed image on the photoconductive insulating layer is subsequently transferred at a transfer station 24 to a support surface, such as copy paper 21, which is fed by feeder 22 to provide intimate transfer contact between the insulating area and the copy paper. The toner image on the copy paper is subsequently, permanently affixed on the copy paper by the application of heat and/or pressure in a fuser 23. Subsequent to the transfer of the toner image to the support surface, any residual toner remaining on the photoconductor is cleaned in a cleaner 25 in preparation for the next imaging cycle. Figure 2 illustrates the clam shell nature of this machine, with a lower frame member 26a and an upper frame member 26b, which has two shafts, 27, 28 in the copy sheet transport system. Alternatively, the electrostatic latent image may be generated from information electronically stored or generated in digital form which afterwards may be converted to alphanumeric images by image generation, electronics and optics. For further information on such apparatus, attention is directed to U.S. Patent 4,372,668 and U.S. Patent 4,660,963. EP-A-492,477 describes a shaft assembly comprising an elongated member at least a portion of which is hollow and filled with a hardened moldable material. In these machines, shafts are typically used to provide a variety of features performing functions within the machines. For example, shafts typically have gears, rolls, pulleys or other drive mechanisms mounted thereon to enable driving various parts or systems in the machine. In addition, the shafts may have retention or location features such as, snaps, fitting elements or stops or may contain other features such as bearings, bushings, rollers, journals and O-rings. Initially, the shafts were typically made from solid materials such as, metals like, steel and aluminum, and the individual functional features or elements such as rollers or gears were individually mounted to the shaft and secured thereto. Typically, this assembly process was manually completed as it did not readily lend itself to automated assembly. While satisfactory in many respects, such shaft assemblies were both heavy and costly in that solid shafts contained more metal and therefore cost more. Each of the individual functional features had to be separately manufactured, separately assembled onto the shaft assembly, all of which increased both materials and assembly time and cost particularly when most of the functional features had to also be located and fixed by way of set screws or other such device to the shaft. Alternatively, the functional features have been formed on metal stock material by such conventional metal working techniques as turning, milling and grinding. In addition, the weight of such shaft assemblies provided a high moment of inertia which necessitated increased drive power requirements. Additional progress in terms of cost and weight of the shaft assemblies has been observed in certain machines which use hollow drive shafts with molded or otherwise separately fabricated functional features such as, gears and rolls which are then manually placed on the shaft and secured in position. Another problem with shaft assemblies, and in particular, with shaft assemblies which have functional features such as pulleys, rolls, gears, etc., which may mate with another component, has to do with what is referred to in the art as runout, which is typically an eccentricity in the shaft itself or in a component mated to the shaft or both. Thus, for example, in a paper feeder wherein a sheet of paper is being fed through a nip formed between two rolls, one of which is driven, there is opportunity for eccentricity in both the shafts on which both rolls are mounted as well as the rolls themselves. Typical eccentricities are of the order of four to five-thousands of an inch per 12 inches (1 inch = 25.4 mm) of shaft length and if both shafts and both rolls have such an eccentricity it is entirely possible that the total runout of the sheet feeder could be as much as twenty-thousands of an inch. In such a feeder it is entirely possible that during the feeding operation one of the rolls in the feeder would lose contact with the paper being fed resulting in skewing of the sheet, mistracking and/or misfeeding. In order to overcome this problem and to keep the rolls in contact, large, complex, expensive apparatus, including bearings, springs, etc., are typically used. Another example of a component in which eccentricity could be a problem is a fuser roll in an electrostatographic printing machine wherein the ends or centerline may be journaled perfectly but the fusing surface will not be a perfect circle around the circumference or along its length. To measure the runout, the shaft assembly is placed in a V-block fixture wherein the ends of the shaft are journaled on the bearings surface and an indicator having a movable needle to follow the surface is placed on the functional surface such as a feed roll surface or a fuser roll. The functional surface is rotated and the concentricity of different portions of the circumference of the functional feature are observed. The total of what the indicator reads from zero, the difference between the high and the low points on the indicator and therefore with respect to the concentricity are the runout on the shaft assembly. It is an object of the present invention to provide a lightweight, low cost, shaft assembly which can be easily manufactured and which can enable problems associated with runout to be overcome. This object is achieved by the shaft assembly of claim 1. In an embodiment, a shaft assembly is provided, which includes an elongated, hollow, tubular member having a core of a hardened, moldable material and having one or more functional features on the outside of the shaft made of a hardened, moldable material which is connected to the core material by means of additional hardened, moldable material in an aperture gate in the tubular member, said tubular member having a helical pattern cut through from the outside surface to the inside surface in that portion adjacent said at least one aperture gate and underneath said at least one functional feature to enable said portion to be flexible and deformable when placed under pressure against a surface. The helical pattern may be present only within the dimensional limits of said at least one functional feature or it may extend beyond the dimensional limits of said at least one functional feature. In an embodiment a shaft assembly is provided comprising an elongated member having at least a portion which is a hollow, tubular, shell having an inside surface defining a shaft core and an outside surface defining a shaft functional surface, the shaft core being filled with a hardened, moldable material and the shaft functional surface having at least one functional feature thereon, which is of the hardened, moldable material, integrally molded with the hardened, moldable material in the core. There is at least one molding aperture gate extending through the shaft from the inside surface to the outside surface and the functional feature and hardened material in the core are connected by hardened, moldable material in the molding gate. The shaft assembly may include at least one additional molding aperture gate extending through said shaft from said inside surface to said outside functional surface, said second molding aperture gate having hardened moldable material therein connecting a functional feature of hardened moldable material on said functional surface with the hardened moldable material in said shaft core. The hardened, moldable material may be a thermoplastic or thermosetting resin or a thermoplastic elastomer which may or may not contain additional material to impart certain selected properties to the surface of the functional feature. The hollow, tubular, shell like portion may be generally circular in cross section and may be made of a metal such as aluminum, copper, stainless or other steel alloys. The shaft may have more than one integrally molded functional feature thereon, each of which features may perform a function different from at least one of the other features or may perform the same function as one of the other features. The coefficient of thermal expansion of the hollow, tubular, shell like portion and the shrink rate of the moldable material may be selected to provide intimate contact between the hardened moldable material and the tubular shell like portion. The hollow, tubular, shell like portion may be an extrusion having a geometric pattern on its inside surface. The shaft assembly may include at least one functional feature which is not integrally molded with the hardened material in the shaft core, but which is secured in place on the shaft assembly by hardened, moldable material in a molding gate and the shaft core. The shaft assembly may include an additional operative feature which has been molded onto the surface of at least one functional feature. A shaft assembly in accordance with the invention may be fabricated by placing the hollow, tubular, shell like portion in a mold which has at least one cavity for at least one functional feature to be formed on the outside surface or an end of the shaft and filling the mold with a hardenable, moldable material, flowing it through the shaft core aperture gate and cavity to form the functional feature on the shaft assembly, permitting the hardenable material to harden, following which the shaft assembly is removed from the mold. The functional feature of a shaft assembly in accordance with the invention may be a cylindrical roll and, in a particular embodiment, is at least one of a pair of feed nip rolls in a sheet feeder forming a sheet feeding nip. By way of example only, embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 (already described) is a schematic representation in cross section of the operational elements of an automatic reproducing machine having several shaft assemblies; Figure 2 (already described) is an isometric view of the upper and lower frame members of the machine; Figures 3A, 3B and 3C are illustrations of a process for molding a shaft assembly; Figure 4 is an isometric view of a shaft with several functional features integrally molded thereon; Figure 4A is an isometric view of a sheet feeder with 2 pairs of rolls forming a feeding nip therebetween; Figure 5 is an isometric view of a shaft having a large plastic frame member integrally molded thereon; Figure 6 is a cross sectional view of a shaft illustrating the hollow, tubular, shell like portion to have a splined interior; Figure 7 is a cross sectional view through a section of the shaft where the molding process has been accomplished twice to place a coated operative surface on the integrally molded functional feature; Figure 8 is a cross sectional view through a separately fabricated, functional feature mounted on a shaft, but secured thereto in place by hardened, moldable material in the shaft core, molding gate and a securing slot in the separately fabricated feature; and Figures 9A to 9E are illustrations of hollow shaft assembly techniques according to the prior art. Attention is now directed to Figures 3A to 3C and 4 for a general overview of a molding process and the shaft assembly produced thereby. As therein illustrated, a section of an elongated member 29 has a hollow, tubular, shell like portion 30 the outside surface 32 of which has a plurality of molding aperture gates 31 formed therein. The gates 31 extend through the shaft from the inside surface 42 to the outside surface 32 and are formed, for example, by a laser machining step after which the hollow tubing is placed in a mold 35 having cavities 36 and 37 for two functional features therein. The features are illustrated as a pulley 38, and a support 39 for elastomer O-rings 40 to be subsequently added. Also associated with each of the aperture gates 31 is a helical pattern 28, cut through from the outside surface to the inside surface adjacent the aperture gate, which also may be formed by laser machining. The mold 35 is subsequently closed and a hardenable, moldable material injected from nozzle 41 into the mold with the hardenable material flowing through the core 43 defined by the inside surface 42 of the hollow tubing through the molding aperture gates 31 and into the mold cavities 36 and 37 to form the pulley 38 and elastomer O-rings support 39. During this molding process it is important to note that the hardenable, moldable material is fluid and flows through the core and is in flowing communication with the mold cavity by means of the aperture gates. When the hardenable material has hardened the mold is opened and the composite shaft assembly is removed. The composite shaft may then be finished with conventional techniques. As illustrated, additional items as desired may now also be added to the assembly, including an elastomer band 44 and elastomer O-rings 40. With particular reference to Figures 9A to 9E, this process is in sharp contrast to prior art practices wherein the individual functional features (there illustrated as two pulleys 45) were separately added to a shaft assembly and secured in place on both inboard and outboard sides by means of two fasteners 46. Typically, all the steps in this operation would be separately and manually performed. Figure 4 illustrates a shaft assembly 47 having a plurality of different functional features molded thereon, including a pair of drive rolls 48 and a grooved support member 51 for the subsequent insertion of three O-rings 50, made by a method as illustrated in Figure 3; and a locator roll 55 and a mount 56 which may be molded according to the method described in EP-A-0,492,477 (corresponding to USSN 07/633,562) and which can be subsequently added. In this regard it is important to note that the features that can be added to the shaft assembly are virtually unlimited, being limited only in that they must be capable of being formed during the molding process. Any feature of course requires that the manufacturing process be considered during its design in order to make molding possible and practical. In Figure 4A a sheet feeder is illustrated having 2 pairs of rotatable rolls forming a sheet feeding nip therebetween. Each roll pair has at least one driven roll 76 while the other roll 78 may be an idler roll in contact with the driven roll. The two shaft assemblies 80, 82 may be made according to a method as illustrated in Figure 3. Alternatively, only one of the shaft assemblies, for example the feed roll shaft assembly, may be made according to such a method, wherein a helical through cut is made on the tubular hollow shell like member and the feed rolls are integrally molded thereover. The idler roll shaft assembly may be made by a method as described in the above-mentioned European application. In this regard it should be noted that any single shaft assembly may include both integrally molded functional features made by a method as illustrated in Figure 3 and at least one additional functional feature made by a method as described in the above-mentioned European application. Returning to the sheet feeder of Figure 4A, with the feed roll shaft assembly made by a method as illustrated in Figure 3, the cut through helical pattern in the tubular member under the integrally molded roll enables the shaft assembly to be flexible, conformable to the other roll and deformable when placed under pressure against a stationary or moving surface. This provides a constant continuous intimate nip between the rotating functional surface with the ability of the drive roll to follow and conform to any possible runout that the mating idler roll may have. The shaft assemblies may be stationary or rotatable depending on the specific application. In the particular application, illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, most of the shaft assemblies are typically used to provide drives in document transports and print substrate transports, which may be simple to complex in operation and short to long in transport path distance and are therefore rotatable. In addition, they may have specific application in cleaner, fuser, developer and optics housing. The integrally molded features may be drive features such as gears, rolls and pulleys; location features such as snap fittings, holes or stops or other functional features such as bearings, bushings, journals, idlers, O-rings, flanges, frames, etc. The elongated member having at least a portion which is hollow, tubular, and shell like, can be of virtually any cross section or made of any suitable material. Typically, it is circular but it may just as well be triangular or rectangular in shape. It may also be a seamless member or a seamed member. It may take the form of an extrusion, including one or more grooved or geometric support members on the interior of the composite shaft. Suitable materials include carbon steel, aluminum, copper, stainless steel, other steel alloys and composite materials or plastic material such as, for example a Teflon tube (Teflon is a trademark of E.I. Dupont de Nemours Co.). Preferably, the elongated member is a metal to supply sufficient rigidity to the shaft assembly Theoretically, there are few, if any dimensional limits on the inside diameter or outside diameter of, for example, a cylindrical tube, nor on the thickness of the wall it being noted that, however, as a practical matter the smaller the internal diameter and longer the shaft the more difficult it is to ensure that the flowable plastic will fill the entire shaft core, aperture gates and mold cavities. It is to be noted that it is possible to inject plastic from both ends of the shaft or even in the center body part of the shaft. While the helical pattern cut through the tubular shell like member may extend beyond the boundaries, ends or dimensional limits of the functional feature on the hollow tubular shell and indeed may extend the entire length of the shaft it is preferred that it is present only within the dimensional limits of the functional feature. This enables solid sections at the ends or at an appropriate place along the shaft to provide a rigid surface for bearings, pulleys, etc. The hardenable, moldable material may be selected from a wide variety of materials which can be handled in a molding process and provide the characteristics and properties to the functional features including high or low friction, specific electrical properties, lubricity and the like. Typical injection moldable or castable materials include the thermoplastic and thermosetting resins and thermoplastic elastomers which are moldable materials with properties close to rubber which do not require vulcanizing such as Santoprene™. Typical thermoplastic resins include polyethylene, polystyrene, polypropylene, polyurethane, polyvinylchloride, nylons, polycarbonate ABS, as well as certain fluorocarbons, such as Teflon. Typical thermosetting resins include acrylics, phenolics and polyesters. The moldable material may be used in a filled or unfilled form and may be filled with materials to impart selected properties such as fire retardancy to the functional feature or rest of the shaft assembly. If desired, the moldable material may be formed with the use of a conventional blowing agent as in the case of, for example, microcellular polyurethane. Further, the moldable material may be filled or unfilled with, for example, up to 30 parts by weight glass fibers per 100 parts by weight resin and may have added other ingredients for selected properties, such as pigments to impart a particular color or other materials for desired properties. The molding aperture gates may be formed in any suitable shape in the hollow, tubular, shell with any suitable process. Typically, they may be drilled, punched, cut, laser machined, formed with a water jet or electrochemical machine and may be in the form of a round hole, shaped aperture slit or other suitable shape. It is important that the holes, gates or ports are sufficiently large and present in sufficient number to enable a flowable material to pass through them from the core into the cavity forming the functional feature on the hollow, tubular shell. In this regard it should be noted that a mold cavity may form a functional feature on an end of the tubular shell. In addition, while not critical, but beneficial, depending on the particular application of the shaft assembly, it may be desirable to select the materials from which the hollow, tubular, shell like member and the hardened material are made such that the coefficient of thermal expansion of the hollow, tubular, shell like portion and the shrink rate of the moldable material are such as to provide intimate contact between the hardened moldable material and the tubular shell like portion. For example, an integral, external roll feature would preferably have intimate contact with the outside diameter of the shell like portion which may, therefore, in the final analysis contribute to enhanced beam strength. Attention is now directed to Figure 5, wherein a shaft assembly 60 is illustrated which includes a large plastic frame or other tubular member 61. In addition, one end of the shaft assembly has a small solid portion 62 which may be useful in mounting purposes while the other end has a different portion 63. With reference to Figure 6, a cross section through the hollow, tubular shell 30 which has been formed by extrusion, illustrates a geometric pattern 65 which may provide additional structural integrity to the shaft assembly. The geometric shape is preferably selected to take advantage of the shrink rate of the plastic to compensate for shrinkage throughout the core and thereby enhance the strength of the shaft assembly. Figure 7 illustrates in cross section a coating 68 formed during a second molding operation on the shaft assembly, wherein the coating such as a molded elastomer is provided on the surface of the first integrally molded feature such as a roll 69. It should be emphasized that roll 69 was previously formed on the shell like portion 30 by having its core 29 and molding gates 31 filled with hardenable, flowable material according to a method as illustrated in Figure 3. Figure 8 illustrates in cross section another alternative embodiment of the present invention, wherein a separately fabricated feature such as roll 72, has been placed on the shell like portion 30 and secured thereto by hardened, moldable material in the core 29 which is in communication with roll securing slots or grooves 74 through aperture gates 31 through the shell 30 from the inside surface 42 to the outside surface 32. Typically this would be done when the molding process is being employed to provide an integrally molded functional feature on the shaft assembly. It should also be noted that any other feature which is formed in other conventional metal forming or shaping processes, such as turning, milling swaging and bulge forming may be used in the manufacture of this shaft assembly. Accordingly, a light weight, low cost shaft assembly has been provided. In addition, the manufacturing process facilitates the rapid production and assembly of the shaft assembly with a plurality of functional features. The helical pattern cut through the tubular hollow shell like member enables the shaft assembly to flex or deform so that an integrally molded functional feature on the shaft may float or move in synchronization with any mating component. Further, the functional feature is allowed to move and conform to any possible runout with a mating component to provide a continuous intimate nip. This permits rollers, mating shafts or trays to have reduced tolerance requirements. Furthermore, in a sheet feeder for example, instead of a complex and costly bearing and spring arrangement to force two rolls against each other under varying loads because of runout, a simple end housing designed to apply a constant load may be used. In addition, it is a simple process in which the number of parts used in a shaft assembly as well the weight of the shaft assembly are dramatically reduced. Reductions in weight (without sacrificing strength) of up to about 60 percent have been achieved for this manufacturing process and reductions in manufacturing costs have been dramatically reduced to of the order at times of 25 to 30 percent of original manufacturing costs. While the above description refers to a shaft assembly useful in an electrostatographic printing machine, it will be understood that it is applicable to rotatable or nonrotatable shaft members in virtually any machine.

Claims: A shaft assembly comprising an elongated member (30) at least a portion of which is tubular, having an inside surface defining a shaft core and an outside surface defining a shaft functional surface, and including at least one molding aperture gate (31) extending from said inside surface to said outside surface, said shaft core being filled with a hardened, moldable material, said shaft functional surface having at least one functional feature (38, 39) thereon, which is of hardened, moldable material integrally molded with the hardened, moldable material in said shaft core and connected thereto by hardened, moldable material in said molding gate, characterized in that said tubular portion has a helical pattern (28) cut through from the outside surface to the inside surface in that portion adjacent said at least one aperture gate and underneath said at least one functional feature to enable said portion to be flexible and deformable. A shaft assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein said helical pattern is present only within the dimensional limits of said at least one functional feature. A shaft assembly as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein said hardened, moldable material is a thermoplastic resin. A shaft assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein said shaft functional surface has more than one of said integrally molded functional features thereon. A shaft assembly as claimed in claim 4, wherein one of the functional features performs a function different from at least one of the other functional features. A shaft assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the coefficient of thermal expansion of the tubular portion and the shrink rate of the moldable material are selected to provide intimate contact between the hardened moldable material and the tubular shell like portion. A shaft assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein said tubular portion is a hollow extrusion having a geometrical pattern in its inside surface. A shaft assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, including at least one functional feature which is not integrally molded with the hardened material in the shaft core but which is secured in place on said shaft by said hardened moldable material. A shaft assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims including an operative feature which has been molded onto said at least one functional feature. A sheet feeder including a shaft assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the said at least one functional feature is a roll which forms part of a sheet feeding nip.

Inventors: JASKOWIAK TIMOTHY R, JASKOWIAK, TIMOTHY R.
Applicants: XEROX CORP, XEROX CORPORATION
Application year: 1994
Main classification: G03G15
IPC codes: F16C3, B29C45, G03G15, B29C70, B29L31, B29D99